Red Star Sells Milson to Al Jazira for 4.5 Million Euros
Al Jazira triggered the buyout clause for the Angolan winger after a successful loan, letting Red Star clear its wage bill before European qualifiers without a real loss.
- UAE side Al Jazira triggered the buyout clause and signed Felisio Milson permanently for 4.5 million euros.
- The Angolan winger spent last season on loan in the Emirates: 13 appearances, 2 goals and 2 assists.
- He joined Red Star in 2024 from Maccabi Tel Aviv for 5 million euros but never earned regular minutes under Dejan Stankovic.
- The deal is close to financially neutral and clears the wage bill before European qualifiers.
There were summer days back in 2024 when supporters at the Marakana said Milson’s name with the hope that Red Star had finally landed a winger who would cut through Serbian Super Liga defences. The Angolan arrived as the most expensive signing of that window, carrying the label of a player who had made the difference in Israel. Two years later, his Belgrade story ends quietly, with no farewell lap and no fuss, just a statement that he has left for the Emirates.
Al Jazira triggered the buyout clause and signed Milson permanently for 4.5 million euros, the very club where he had spent the previous season on loan. He looked freer there than he ever did at the Marakana, logging 13 appearances with two goals and two assists, and clearly did enough to convince the Abu Dhabi management to keep him for good.
Why do Red Star part so easily with an expensive signing?
The answer is simple and a little uncomfortable. In a Red Star shirt Milson never justified the fee attached to his name. He arrived from Maccabi Tel Aviv for 5 million euros, at the time one of the club’s biggest outlays in a transfer window. Expectations were high, playing time kept shrinking.
He never settled into Dejan Stankovic’s first eleven. There were injuries, competition on the flanks and those evenings when he would come off the bench to change a match, only for the change to never come. When a player with that price tag sits and waits for his chance, the dressing room feels it, and the books show it through a salary that keeps running with no output on the pitch. Last year’s loan to the Emirates was really a trial run that has now turned into a permanent contract.
For Red Star the maths here is what matters. Bought for five, sold for four and a half million, with a full season of wages saved along the way. It is not the kind of profit that gets written up as a transfer coup, but it is not a loss that stings either. In a market where clubs often have to write off the entire fee on players Milson’s age, recovering almost the full investment on someone who is out of the plans counts as good business.
What the move means for the squad before Europe
Red Star head into a fresh cycle of European qualifiers with a clear idea to trim the bench and open room for profiles that better suit Stankovic’s vision of the game. Milson’s departure is not just a line in the accounts, it is also a signal that the board will not keep expensive players out of the rotation simply because of the money spent.
On the other hand, depth on the wings remains an open question. Champions League or Europa League qualifiers can be ruthless toward teams with a thin roster, and summer is the right moment to fill that gap. The money coming from Abu Dhabi gives the sporting director a little more room to manoeuvre, and now it is up to the club not to waste that capital.
Milson moves to a league that, by all accounts, suits him better, while Red Star close a chapter that never turned out the way it was dreamed at the Marakana two years ago. It remains to be seen who the club will bring in to replace him, because the real test of this move will not be in the ledger but on the pitch when the whistle blows to start the European qualifiers.
Did Red Star make a shrewd move with this parting, or did they give up too soon on a player only now entering his best years?
